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Alexandria McBride: Chief Resilience Officer, Oakland

“One big lesson from The New School was to challenge everything,” says Alexandria McBride, who graduated from the The New School with a Master of Science in Environmental Policy and Sustainability Management in 2016. “By challenging traditional models of thinking, that type of environment really allowed me to learn from others, to trust myself, and to really imagine new ways to do things.”

Following her graduation, McBride began working as the director of Environment and Sustainability at the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI), based in Washington, DC.

“Environmental policy can be taught in one way, the policy side, or maybe with more science or more of a social justice angle, but the benefit of my program was that I was able to get a sample of each,” says McBride. “The New School helped me develop my passion for environmental justice by giving me a chance to study it and examine it in a way I hadn’t done before.”

Since the making of this video, McBride has been named chief resilience officer for the city of Oakland, California. She leads citywide resilience building efforts with the goal of helping Oakland prepare for, withstand, and bounce back from shocks (catastrophic events like earthquakes, fires, and floods) and stresses (conditions like sea-level rise, homelessness, and economic inequality).

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